Washington,IN — PUBLIC NOTICE

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) have completed a re-evaluation of flood easement areas for Section 2 of the I-69 project from SR 64 near Oakland City in Gibson County to US 50 near Washington in Daviess County. The I-69 project is a four lane interstate highway on mostly new terrain that will link Evansville, Indiana with Indianapols, Indiana. The Section 2 Tier 2 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was approved on February 25, 2010 and noticed in the Federal Register on March 5, 2010. The Section 2 Record of Decision (ROD) was approved on April 30, 2010. Since the publication of the above documents, flood easements associated with design refinements have been identified.

This revised design of Section 2 requires approximately 23.68 acres of permanent flood easement acquisition. These flood easements will accommodate the increased backwater generated during the regulatory flood, as defined by 312 IAC 10-2-35, resulting from the final Section 2 design. There are twelve locations where flood easements will be acquired on a total of 111 parcels for this project. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing East Fork Keg Creek, located west of Gibson CR 950 E, immediately east of I-69, total 1.08 acres consisting of forested wetland and agricultural land. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing Buck Creek, located east of I-69 and north and south of Gibson CR 000 (Baseline Road), total 0.93 acre consisting of agricultural land and a residential lot. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing _000200000C1000000655_C0A,Hurricane Creek, located east of Gibson CR 1150 E and west of Hurricane Creek, total 0.25 acre consisting of entirely agricultural land. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing un-named tributary of Flat Creek, located west of I-69 and south of Pike CR 50 S, total 0.93 acre consisting of agricultural land, existing transportation use, and forest. The flood easements associated with Pike CR 600 N  crossing unnamed tributary of Lick Creek, located south of the Pike CR 600 N connector to SR 57 and east of Pike CR 200 E, total 0.26 acre of forest and agricultural land. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing Mud Creek, located east of I-69 and north of Pike CR 650 N, total 0.14 acre consisting of agricultural land and forest. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing the East Fork White River, located east of I-69 and north and south of the White River extend east to the SR 257 bridge crossing the East Fork White River total 14.88 acres, consisting of agricultural, existing transportation use, forest, and residential land. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing Veale Creek and I-69 crossing unnamed tributary of Veale Creek, located east of I-69 and west of Horrall Rd., and LSR-24 crossing unnamed tributary of Veale Creek, located west of I-69 and north of Daviess CR 300 S, total approximately 0.72 acre of forest, agricultural land, and residential lots. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing Hurricane Branch, located east of I-69 and north and south of Daviess CR 150 S, total 4.42 acres, consisting of wetland forest, agricultural land, and pasture land. The flood easements associated with I-69 crossing un-named tributary of Hur-ricane Branch, located east of the US 50 interchange and south of US 50, total 0.07 acre consisting entirely of agricultural land.

The environmental impacts on these areas have been considered. It has been determined that there will be no impact to the forest, residential, and wetland areas, and only minor impacts on farmland. Due to the short duration and infrequent nature of the anticipated increased backwater due to the low probability of occurrence, the resulting flooding and acquisition of the flood easements is not anticipated to result in any change to the existing land uses on these areas. It has also been determined that these flood easements will have no affect on historic resources or archaeological resources.

Representatives from INDOT and the team selected to complete design work for this section, as well as Section 3, maintain daily office hours in the Washington office and are available for questions or comments. Questions or comments pertaining to Section 2 or other parts of the project may also be directed to the project website. For more information about all six sections of I-69, visit the Project Website at www.i69indyevn.org. The views of the public on the revised flood easement design are being sought. Please reply no later than August 7, 2010. Please reply to the contact listed below.

David Pluckebaum

Phone: 812-254-2831

July 23, 2010